Dr Louise Hardwick awarded European Funding

Posted on 21 Nov 2012

Dr Louise Hardwick, a lecturer in French in the Department of Modern Languages, has received a major European funding award of over 209,000 Euros. The prestigious Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship is awarded to leading European researchers who are developing innovative research collaborations which deepen our understanding of the world around us.

The award will be used to fund a two-year project on Francophone Caribbean Literature, looking specifically at literary representations of race across a range of Caribbean authors by investigating:

Caribbean culture and history

“Francophone” cultures: the cultures of peoples who speak French throughout the world, particularly in the Caribbean and Africa

This involves a programme of research and training activities organised by Louise, which will include international conference presentations, fieldwork and research publications, as well as an online research blog.

The Marie Curie award has been used to fund a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr Alessandro Corio, who joins the University of Birmingham for next two years to work on the project. Alessandro has published widely on Francophone Caribbean literature and is a graduate of the Universities of Bologna and Strasbourg.